Halt's Ranger Apprentices- John Flanagan Ranger Apprentice fan-fiction

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

Nearly 2 months had passed since the day Horace had said he liked her, they had seen a lot of each other in those past weeks. They had gone on 2 picnics together, and Annabelle was starting to warm up with Horace, Horace like-wise. They saw each other almost every day, telling each other how their day went. The bullies still harassed Horace, Annabelle offered to help again, but Horace refused, if things didn't go to plan like it didn't last time, the bullies would tease him more. Annabelle couldn't disagree with that, but something at the back of her mind kept telling her that Rodney wasn't like that, even if he had called her a girl and spoilt. Ever since then, Annabelle and Rodney had been on shaky ground. They barely greeted each other any more.

Also, Will and Annabelle were on rocky ground. It was obvious that Will wasn't ok with her seeing Horace. They briefly talked now. Annabelle made an effort to start a conversation but he always found a way out of it. Annabelle felt bad for him but, ever since she started seeing Horace, all the strong feelings she had for him were gone. But she still cared for him.

Will, Halt and Belle (Annabelle) were riding home when Halt saw some tracks in the inch deep snow. It was the start of Winter now and there was a small trickle of snow flakes falling. Halt signalled for Belle and Will to dismount and Halt bent down to inspect the tracks. He looked back at Will, deciding to ask him a question.

"What do you think these tracks are from?" he asked him.

"Rabbits" Will said, after inspecting the tracks for several seconds. Halt nodded. Will and Halt inspected some more and found a stoat as well. They talked some more. Belle stood there letting Will answer Halt's questions. Belle stood there bored, waiting for the lesson for Will to finish. After five minutes they finally mounted back on their horses. Belle glanced at Will who was next to her, with Halt on the other side of Will. She caught his eye for a brief second. She saw that his face was bright, happy that he had succeeded in detecting the tracks in the snow. Now, as he looked at her, his face went dark and miserable. Belle sighed sadly.

"Will, do-" Will ignored her, pretending that he didn't hear her start talking and turned to face Halt

"Shall we go now?" he asked. Halt looked at Belle and Will. He had noticed the tension between them when Belle and Horace started seeing each other. Halt nodded

"Yes, let's go" he said. Will put slight pressure into Tug's belly and instantly Tug trotted off. Halt caught Belle's eye. Belle sighed angrily and started trotting as well. Halt shrugged

"Kids" he said quietly to himself "There's always drama happening" he said. Belle heard him, Halt obviously didn't mean for her to hear but with her trained ears, she heard it.

"You were probably the same" she replied calling back to Halt a 2 metres behind her. Halt sat straighter in his seat

"I was not!" he called out. Belle stopped Beauty and turned in her saddle to look at him clearly. He was a good liar and could fool almost anyone, but it seemed that Belle had known him too well and could always see the doubt in his eyes if he was lying. She squinted looking in his eyes carefully. There was doubt in there. She laughed

"Yeah right!" she said and started trotting once again. She heard Halt curse to himself and mutter but she was too far away to hear anything more than mumbling now. Halt was about 7 metres behind Belle, who was bout a metre behind Will. Halt was sure that his apprentices would see danger if there was any. Belle came to a decision. She dug her heels in to Beauty's stomach making Beauty pick up her trotting pace, until she was level with Will. Will saw her and sighed but didn't say anything. Belle had enough.

"Alright Will! Say it! Say what you're thinking right now! Because I have had enough of you avoiding me when I have no idea what I did wrong!" Will gave her a smirk.

"Oh! You've had enough? What about me? Do you think I like seeing you with Horace? Do you think I enjoy spending time with you, when I know you're with Horace and I have feelings for you!" Belle went wide-eyed.

"What?" Belle asked, shocked with what she was hearing. She had only guessed that he liked her, but hearing him say it was a whole different thing completely. Will lowered his gaze away from Belle and took a deep breath. They both sat in their saddles in silence, Belle, with her jaw hanging open in shock and Will, sitting there staring gloomily off in the distance, his vision blurring by the second from tears. Halt was starting to come around a bend and was whistling an old folk song. He was completely unaware of what just happened. He noticed that Will and Belle had stopped and buried his heels in Abelard's stomach sending him from a walk to a trot, and within seconds he caught up to the two kids. He looked at their faces and instantly realized that something bad had happened between them.

'You two alright?" he asked breaking the silent tension growing between them all. Belle only just noticed that her mouth was hanging open and shut it with a clomp sound. Belle then went to reply but realized that she had no idea if everything was alright. She was full of all these mixed emotions. Her head was spinning and she felt butterflies growing in her stomach and started to feel like she was going to throw up, but she had no  idea why. She liked Horace, reason why she was with him, but as those words that Will blurted out came out of his mouth, she felt a strange sensational feeling, like she would feel when she was over joyed. But why? She liked Horace and yet it seemed her heart was leaping towards Will. Will was the first to recover and answered the question.

"Fine" he said in a defeated tone. He roughly rubbed his eyes to prevent any tears from slipping out of his dark brown eyes and slide down his cheeks, then trotted off down the track. Belle sat there not daring to meet Halt's eyes. Halt sat there not convinced that everything was fine and put his hand gently on Belle's chin, gently pushing her head up to face him.

"Is everything okay?" he asked. Belle didn't reply for a few seconds. She realized that her throat had gone dry and she had to swallow a few times to put moisture back in to it. She then had to decide what she was going to say. She finally came to a decision.

"We better get moving before it get's dark" she said and pulled her head away from Halt's hand that was still on her chin and trotted off the same way that Will went toward the cottage. Halt sighed and did likewise.